Overview

There are two gradebook applications in e-Learning - Gradebook is the original tool and Gradebook 2 is a later addition offering a few more options. The two tools are integrated in such a way that any data entered into one gradebook will show up in the other. BUT, be aware that though the columns, categories and data entered is the same in both gradebooks, because Gradebook 2 has additional functions, the calculations will not necessarily be the same. While you may enter a column called "Extra points," Gradebook 2 will calculate that as true extra credit, where Gradebook does not have that ability. If you tell Gradebook 2 to drop the lowest score in a category, the calculation will be different than in Gradebook because Gradebook doesn't have the ability to drop the lowest score. If you are using the extra features of Gradebook 2, make sure you remove or hide the Gradebook tool from students so they don't see two conflicting grades.

Gradebook 2 will do everything Gradebook will do and will also:

allow for grading using letter grades

drop the lowest score(s) in a category

allow for weighting columns within a category

calculate extra credit

allow the reordering of columns and categories by “drag and drop”

allow you to drop (excuse) a grade for an individual student.

allow you to insert a zero in a column until grades are entered. (Gradebook allows you to do this at the final grade calculation process.)

This keeps the Final Letter Grade calculations accurate even though not all data has been entered yet. If you do not choose this option, the Final Letter Grade calculations

will not be accurate until all data is in and zeros have been entered into empty columns.

Gradebook 2 will not:

allow more points than is possible to be entered in a column.

NOTE: The reason Gradebook 2 will not let you enter more than the most possible points is that Gradebook 2 will calculate extra credit, where Gradebook will not. If you had an exam worth 100 points, but there was a bonus question worth 5 points, you would set up a column for the exam worth 100 points and an extra credit column worth 5 points.

Calculation Options

There are four main ways that you can set up Gradebook 2 calculations:

Option 1) Create columns and enter points. The gradebook will add all columns to give you a total number of points for the course. The Final letter grade will be based on a percentage of the total points.

Option 2) Create weighted columns and grade using percentages. This would be used if you have single items that make up a certain percentage of the grade. For example, the course project is 40% of the grade, the mid-term exam is 25% of the grade and the final exam is 35% of the grade.

Option 3) Create weighted categories, place columns within the categories and enter points. This would be used if you have several items under one category. For example, you assign 10 quizzes during the semester and the total of those quizzes will make up 15% of the grade. There are 5 assignments and the total of those assignments will make up 30% of the grade, etc.

Option 4) Grade using letter grades. There are a few things you need to consider before you decide to you letter grades in Gradebook 2:

You must use letter grades for every column. You cannot mix letter grades with numeric grades.

You will not be able to give automatically graded assessments using the Tests & Quizzes or Assessments tools as those tools only give numeric grades.

You must create columns for Assignments in Gradebook 2 rather than having the Assignment tool send a column to the Gradebook. In Assignments, only numeric grades can be sent to the Gradebook. You must manually enter letter grades in Gradebook 2, rather than in the Assignment.

You must use letter grades from the beginning of the semester. You cannot change to letter grades from numeric and you cannot change numeric to letter grades.

Set Up Calculation Options

Within the course where you want to set up Gradebook 2, click on Gradebook 2 in the left menu.

Gradebook 2 interface is a double-paned view. The left pane will list your categories and columns while the right column is for student data and editing. If this is the first time you’ve opened Gradebook 2, the "Set Up Gradebook" screen will be opened for you in the right pane. Any other time, click Edit at the top of the blue box and choose “Gradebook Settings.” The “Set Up Gradebook” screen will appear in the right pane.

Your gradebook will have a long string of letters and numbers in the box called “Name.” This is the unique identifier of your course. You may change the name to something more understandable - such as “ABC1234 Gradebook.”

Set Up Gradebook 2 for Option 1

Organize by: Select "No Categories"

NOTE: You would utilize the "Categories" option if you want to drop lowest score(s) or if you just want to use the Categories for organizing your columns.

Grade Using: Select "Points"

Display to Students: Check the box(es) next to the items you want to be displayed to the students. You can come back and change this at any time.

Click Save/Close

Now you need to add columns for your data:

Click File at the top of the blue box and choose “New Item.” The “New Item” screen will appear in the right pane.

Name: Enter a name for the column.

Points: Enter the most possible points for this column.

Due date: optional - it will appear to the students’ in their view of Gradebook 2 and can also be used in Resources to provide Selective Release information (content appears in Resources after the due date has passed for a particular item.)

Source: Since you are creating this column in the gradebook, that is set as the source and cannot be changed.

NOTE: The Source denotes where the column was created and where grades can be entered. This column is being added in the gradebook and so must have the grades entered in the gradebook. If you had created an Assignment that automatically created a column in the gradebook for you, the source for that column would be "Assignments." Grades could only be entered through the Assignments tool, not through the gradebook. The same is true if the column was created through Assessments or Tests & Quizzes.

Include in grade: This box is checked by default. Only uncheck the box if you do not want the data in this column to be part of the calculations.

Extra credit: When you make a column "Extra Credit" the points are not included in the total possible points. Students are not penalized if they do not get these points.

Release scores: Check this box if you want scores to be released to students.

Give ungraded no credit: If you check this box, there will be a 0 in every box until a score is entered. You can check the box at any time during the semester and it must be checked at the end to assure accurate grade calculations.

Click Save/Close if you don't need to add more columns, or Save if you want to add more columns. If you are adding more columns, simply change the current information and hit Save again. For example, if you created a column called "Quiz 1" and you want to create "Quiz 2" with all the same settings, just change "Quiz 1" to "Quiz 2" and hit Save. You can quickly add many columns.

Set Up Gradebook 2 for Option 2

Organize by: Select “No Categories”

Grade Using: Select "Percentages"

Display to Students: Check the box(es) next to the items you want to be displayed to the students. You can come back and change this at any time.

Click Save/Close

Now you need to add the columns. Be aware that since you are grading using percentages, every column will be worth 100 "points" (percent).

Click File at the top of the blue box and choose “New Item.” The “New Item” screen will appear in the right pane.

Name: Enter the name of the column

Points: Enter the number that reflects what percentage of the total grade this column is to receive.

The terminology is somewhat confusing in Gradebook 2. If you are using percentages, of course every column is worth 100. What it really wants to know is the percentage of the total grade. So if this column is worth 35% of the total grade, enter "35."

Due date: optional - it will appear to the students’ in their view of Gradebook 2 and can also be used in Resources to provide Selective Release information (content appears in Resources after the due date has passed for a particular item.)

Source: Since you are creating this column in the gradebook, that is set as the source and cannot be changed.

NOTE: The Source denotes where the column was created and where grades can be entered. This column is being added in the gradebook and so must have the grades entered in the gradebook. If you had created an Assignment that automatically added a column in the gradebook for you, the source for that column would be "Assignments." Grades could only be entered through the Assignments tool, not through the gradebook. The same is true if the column was created through Assessments or Tests & Quizzes.

Include in grade: check the box if you want the data in this column to be part of the calculations.

Extra credit: When you make a column "Extra Credit" the points are not included in the total possible points. Students are not penalized if they do not get these points. To use Extra Credit while grading using percentages, the "Total Points" will be how many extra percentage points students can receive if they complete all the Extra Credit work. For example, if students get 100% of all the Extra Credit, they will receive 2 Extra Credit Percentage Points.

Release scores: check this box if you want students to see these scores.

Give ungraded no credit: if you check this box every student will receive a "0" until a grade is entered. You can check the box at any time during the semester and it must be checked at the end to assure accurate grade calculations.

Repeat these steps until you have columns whose weight totals 100% (Plus any Extra Credit percentage points if applicable).

Set Up Gradebook 2 for Option 3

Set “Organize by:” to “Weighted Categories”

Set “Grade Using” to “Points” (You would not use Percentages in this example because the "Weight" is with the categories, not the columns.)

In the “Display to Students” box, check the box(es) next to the items you want to be displayed to the students. You can come back and change this at any time.

Click Save/Close

Now you need to add your categories and columns:

Name: Give a name to this category.

% Grade: Enter the percentage of the overall grade that this category receives.

Drop lowest: If you want the lowest score(s) dropped, enter the number of items you want dropped.

Include in Grade: The box is checked by default - leave it checked.

Extra Credit: Since this category is a percentage of the total grade, it will not be extra credit so you should not check the box. If you do want to add a category for extra credit, you will make a separate category for that. In the "percentage of grade" box, you need to enter what percentage of the grade the total number of extra credit points will be. For example, if you want a student who completes all extra credit work to receive 2 extra percentage points above the 100 percent, you enter "2" in the "percent of grade" box.

Weight items equally: You must check this box if you are dropping lowest score(s). Even if you are not dropping lowest score(s), check the box if every item in this category will carry the same weight within the category. If you do not check the box, when you create your columns you will have to manually give each column a weight within the category. For example: I have an Exams Catgory that is worth 40% of the total grade. I have 3 exams worth 100 points each. Exam 1 is worth 25% of the category, Exam 2 is worth 35% of the category and Exam 3 is worth 40% of the category.

Release scores: Check the box if you want the scores in all the columns in the category to be released to students.

Weight Items by Points: Check this box if the columns in this category will have different point values and you want their point value to determine the weight of the item. For example: In this category you place four columns. Three are worth 50 points and the fourth is worth 100 points. The three worth 50 points will each get 20 percent of the category while the one worth 100 points will get 40 percent of the category.

Click Add. Repeat these steps to add as many categories as you need to total 100%.

To create columns:

Click File at the top of the blue box and choose “New Item.” The “New Item” screen will appear in the right pane.

Name: Enter a name for the column.

Category: Select the appropriate category from the drop-down menu.

Points: Enter the most possible points for this column.

Due date: optional - it will appear to the students’ in their view of Gradebook 2

Source: Since you are creating this column in the gradebook , that is set as the source and cannot be changed.

NOTE: The Source denotes where the column was created and where grades can be entered. This column is being added in the gradebook and so must have the grades entered in the gradebook. If you had created an Assignment that automatically created a column in the gradebook for you, the source for that column would be "Assignments." Grades could only be entered through the Assignments tool, not through the gradebook. The same is true if the column was created through Tests & Quizzes or Assessments.

Include in grade: This box is checked by default. Only uncheck the box if you do not want the data in this column to be part of the calculations.

Extra credit: When you make a column "Extra Credit" the points are not included in the total possible points. Students are not penalized if they do not get these points.

Release scores: Check this box if you want scores to be released to students.

Give ungraded no credit: If you check this box, there will be a 0 in every box until a score is entered.

Click Add

Repeat this process until you have all your columns created.

Set Up Gradebook 2 for Option 4

Set up Gradebook 2 (Edit > Gradebook Settings) by choosing "Letter Grades" from the "Grade Using:" drop-down menu. Other than the fact that you are using letters rather than points, setting up the categories and columns are exactly like options 1 & 3 above. When you create a new column, it will ask for "Points." Just ignore this box. Other than that, follow the instructions for Option 1 to set up Gradebook 2 for letter grades.

Customize Gradebook 2 Appearance

The left pane contains all categories and columns. By default, they will be displayed in alphabetical order. Columns and categories can be rearranged by clicking the item and then dragging it to the place in the list where you want it to be. If you drag a category, all columns within that category will move also.

The right pane is used for editing settings, categories and columns. When you do not have an editing screen open in the right pane, it displays student data. By default, you will see the Students' names, displayed last name first, the Course Grade and the Grade Override column in the right pane. You can choose which columns to display when you click the Attributes & Grades tab at the top of the left pane. Check the box next to the item(s) you want to see in the right pane, or uncheck the box next to the item(s) you do not want to see.

Display ID = gatorlink username

Display Name = student name, first name first

Last Name, First = student name, last name first

Email = gatorlink email address

Section = section #

Course Grade = displays the calculated letter grade and shows the percentage that the letter grade is based on in parentheses - B+(89.7%)

Grade Override = this column allows you to override the calculated letter grade.

Click the Gradebook tab at the top of the left pane to return to the list of categories and columns.

You may also choose to display any or all of the gradebook columns you have created in the right pane. Check the box beside any column you want to see in the right window pane. With this system, you may choose to only display the column you are currently working with to minimize the need to scroll.

Manually inputting Student Grades

Inputting student grades in Gradebook 2 is just like entering into an Excel spreadsheet.
From the left pane:

check the box next to the column(s) into which you want to input grades.

The column(s) will show next to the list of student names in the right pane.

click in the column beside the student's name and type in the grade.

Grades are automatically saved. The green triangle in the upper left corner of the box designates a grade that was manually entered.

Add a Comment and View Grade History

If you right click on a grade, a window opens that allows you to

Add a comment: Add a comment to the student pertaining to his/her grade. Type your comment and click Submit.

Edit a comment: (only if a comment already exists) - Make edits to a previously posted comment * View Grade History - See any changes that have been make to this grade. Includes the name of the person who made the change.

Excuse (Drop) a Grade for an Individual Student

In the right window pane where your students are listed:

Click the hyperlinked name of the student

A smaller box opens within the right pane that contains the student information and then the scores listed below that. There are three tabs at the top of the list of scores. Click on Excuses

Check the box beside any grade you want to drop for this student.

Click Close

Import from Scantron

NOTE: Because Gradebook 2 does not allow you to enter more than the most possible points in a column, if your scantron file has any grades greater than the most possible, the file will not import. You will need to import your file through Gradebook.

When you take your bubble sheets to Turlington B-213 for scanning, you will be asked to fill out paperwork. Make sure you check the box stating that you are using e-Learning. This will make sure your results include the gatorlink usernames of your students. You also need to take a flash drive or a floppy disk for the files you will receive.

You will receive two .csv files from the scanning office. One file contains the students' gatorlink username and grade. It will be called "UploadExam1." The other is called "NoMatchExam1" and contains any grades that do not match a UFID entered on the bubble sheets. This could happen if a student entered his/her UFID incorrectly on the bubble sheet. You will need to manually enter these grades after you finish the import of the UploadExam1 file.

If you have already created a column in Gradebook 2 to receive these scores, change the heading of the column in your scantron file to match perfectly the heading in Gradebook 2.

NOTE: If you do not already have a column created, the process will create a new column for your data. The default points possible for this column will be 100 points.

If your points possible is more or less than 100 points, create a column with the correct points possible before you import.

You are now ready to import this file into Gradebook 2.

Click Tools at the upper left of the blue box

Click Import

On the next screen, click Browse beside the "File:" box.

Locate the file on your computer and double-click on it.

Click Next

You will see the "Preview Data" screen which shows the information you are importing. Verify that this is accurate and click Next.

Click Done

If you created a new column with this import, it will not be released to the students. Double-click the name of the column in the left pane to release and adjust any settings that need to be changed.

Import and Export Using Excel in Gradebook 2

Exporting your gradebook is an important part of the end-of-semester process. You can save this spreadsheet to your computer, or burn it to a CD or DVD for long-term storage. This serves as a back-up of this important data.

Export from Gradebook 2

Click Tools at the upper left of the blue box

Click Export

Select:

Only Grades as CSV - this option exports all student IDs (gatorlink username), Name, all columns including a comments column for each grade column, and the Course Grade. You will choose this option if you want to import scores and/or comments back into Gradebook 2. The file is already in the proper format for importing back into Gradebook 2.

Only Grades as Excel 97/2000/XP - this option exports the same information as above, but opens it in Excel which allows you to add calculations and other formatting not available in .csv format. If you want to import data from this spreadsheet, you will have to save it as .csv before importing. Be aware that numeric values are the only data that can be imported into Gradebook 2 unless you are grading with letter grades. In that case, only the standard letter grades with +/- can be imported.

Grades & Structure as CSV - this option exports all grades and also states the information about how the gradebook was set up - such as weighted categories, dropped scores, etc. in .csv format.

Grades and Structure as Excel 97/2000/XP - this option exports the same as above, but in Excel format.

The file is saved to your computer.

Import into Gradebook 2

NOTE: If you are working with a file you exported from Gradebook 2, it will include a column with the student UFID and a column with the section number in it, even though you do not see those columns in Gradebook 2. Those columns have been inserted so that when you export your grades at the end of the semester for import into Grade-A-Gator, you will have the UFID and Section Number. But if you are going to re-import this spreadsheet back into Gradebook 2, you will need to delete the UFID and the Section Number columns. Those columns will not import.

Click Tools at the upper left of the blue box

Click Import

On the next screen, click Browse beside the "File:" box.

Locate the file on your computer and double-click it.

Click Next

You will see the "Preview Data" screen which shows the information you are importing. Verify that this is accurate and click Next.

Click Done

If you created a new column with this import, it will not be released to the students. Double-click the name of the column in the left pane to adjust any settings that need to be changed.

View Student Grades in Gradebook 2

You may verify what students are seeing when they go to Gradebook 2. In the right pane, click any students' name. You may edit grades or enter comments here. There is a button at the bottom of the pane that says "View as Student." This view will show you exactly what this particular student sees when he/she goes to Gradebook 2.

Any grades that are dropped or are not included in the final gradebook calculations will show in red with a strike-through. NOTE: If you chose the option to "give ungraded no credit" in a particular column, a zero will show until a grade is entered. This zero is not struck through in red when the lowest score is dropped in a category.

Gradebook 2: Change the Letter Grade Scale

Courses created after August 10, 2011, will have the UF Grade scale by default. Any course created prior to this date will need to adjust the Grade scale and this process is best done in Gradebook as Gradebook 2 does not allow for the entry of more than the most possible points and so it is not possible to override the A+ option. Once you make the changes in Gradebook, Gradebook 2 will reflect the changes.

Prepare Grades for Submission to Grade-A-Gator in Gradebook 2

If any of the Course Grades have three asterisks beside them, for example, "B (87.2%)***" that means that all data has not been entered for that grade. If a student doesn't have a grade in at least one column, you will see the three asterisks. You will need to add zeros to the empty cells:

To automatically add zero's to a gradebook item:

In the left pane, double-click on the name of the column.

In the right pane, check the box beside "Give ungraded no credit."

Click Save

Continue until all columns have zeros inserted. Click Save/Close

You have the option to override any grade. If there is a final grade that you want to change before exporting the grades, you may do that. In the Gradebook 2 left pane:

Click the "Attributes and Grades" tab

Make sure the check box is checked beside "Course Grade" and "Grade Override."

In the right pane, those columns appear beside the student names. In the Grade Override column, enter the grade you want to give the student(s). In the "Course Grade" column,

the calculated percentage will change to say "override."

NOTE: You cannot use this process to change an "F" to an "E" or an "I" as those are not valid grades in the system. You can only change the letter grade to another valid

letter grade; A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, F.

You are now ready to download the grades.

At the top of the Gradebook 2 screen, click Tools > Export > Only Grades > as CSV (.csv)

The file will be downloaded to your computer. This file must be adjusted to meet Registrar requirements. We have created a process that will format the file as needed for import into Grade-a-Gator. This formatting process will put your columns in the correct order, remove the comma from between the last and first names, remove column headings, remove the percentage from the Letter Grade column, change any grade of "F" to an "E", add Credit Hours and Gordon Rule if needed.

Upload your .csv file. You will receive an alert message listing the changes that were made to the document and anything you need to address, such as missing section numbers (for students that were manually enrolled, for example). You are given a link to download your correctly formatted file.

Click the blue "Download your File" button to download the correctly formatted file. You must download this file within 15 minutes or submit the file again. Files are erased to protect student grade data from unauthorized access.

Once you have retrieved your properly formatted file, proceed with upload to Grade-A-Gator.

NOTE: If you have a Gordon Rule class, all students will be given a "y" in the Gordon Rule column. If there are students in your course that did not meet Gordon Rule requirements, you will need to change the "y" to an "n" in the spreadsheet.